A Happy New Year gardeners and nature lovers.
What a spell of wet and cold weather we are having with frosty mornings! Needless to say we are in the last few winter months so we should expect wintery conditions still to come.
This is a good opportunity to take time and plan ahead what it is you want from your garden especially what seeds to order for the vegetable beds and perennials and annuals for the flower borders. My list of to do things is growing to a pageful of tasks. We try and support the local nurseries but this year have had to resort to online ordering of seeds.
It won’t be long to start sowing seeds eg, leeks and sweet peas and the rest will follow with the anticipation of checking every day if the seeds have germinated and so too the days will lengthen and the new season of growing will commence yet again! What excitement to look forward to!
Once this wild weather moves away and temperatures rise above zero I will weed through the flower borders one last time, the annual weeds are easy to see as they are in the green and easy to pull out.
The snowdrops are through with the petals tight shut and in the next warm sunshine the white petals will open and give pleasure to us, the hellebores too are ready to show their splendour but with them we shall cut back (our first time ever) the old leaves to let the emerging flowers have free space and reduce hellebore leaf spot, although we don’t have a problem with that yet.
Due to bacterial canker in one of the gean trees we had to take that one down altogether due to the severity of the spread of the canker. In its place we planted a Czar plum tree and watered it in thoroughly – it is a wonderful feeling to plant a tree for its ‘presence’. Now is still a good time to plant bare root trees and shrubs till the end of March but the sooner the better.
Looking out the window the little birds are grateful for their daily apples and birdseed we put out for them and fresh water too. For you bird lovers out there we shall also be taking part in the RSPB Big Garden Birdwatch between the 29-31 January as our annual ritual and it is great fun too. This year we can also note down our daily visits of red squirrels and who knows what else might be sighted!
Keep warm and safe and in no time the daylight hours will lengthen and new life will emerge from the ground!
